Phonics and language development
“The more that you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” – Dr. Seuss
Language Skills include (LSRW)-
Listening, Speaking, Reading and Writing. A child or a person should simultaneously develop these four language abilities in order to learn any new or second language. It demonstrates the importance of having linguistic knowledge and proficiency for flawless communication.
One of the fundamental elements of the literacy skills that aids in our quest for knowledge, is reading.
The brain develops and matures over the first three years of life, making this the most intensive time for speech and language development. It is optimal for these talents to develop in a world that is full of diverse noises, sights, and regular exposure to other people’s speech and language.
Have you ever observed that some kids start learning to read and speak English well at a young age and they are confident readers of large words and don’t require word breaks.
That is the beauty of the phonics structure, which aids in the early development of literacy skills in youngsters.
So how does it function?
To discover more about why teaching phonics at a young age is recommended and how it influences a child’s language learning behaviour, stay tuned to this article.
According to studies, children who have a firm foundation in phonological awareness learn to read more easily and successfully than those who don’t.
What is a phonics approach to reading instruction, and how can you utilise it with younger students in the classroom?
Children can learn how to read and write using phonics. It aids kids with understanding, recognising, and employing the many sounds that separate one word from another in the English language.
In order to assist children to learn how to read, phonics teaches them this knowledge. Students discover the sounds that each letter makes, as well as how the arrangement of the letters affects the meaning of a word. For instance, if we ignore letter order, words like “dog” and “pat” could be mistaken for “god” and “tap,” respectively.
The Benefits of Phonics:
Improves Early Literacy Skills:
It has long been argued that phonics actually alters how kids learn to read, enabling them to acquire the ability far more quickly and efficiently.
Helps with the development of speech and language:
Phonics can assist children who have difficulty with speech and language development by dissecting words into their component sounds, pausing to examine how each sound is made, and paying attention to how our mouths and lips cooperate to generate each sound.
Helps Remove Learning Barriers:
Phonics has also been praised for assisting kids who have learning difficulties, such as dyslexics.
How to practice phonics at home?
Syllable count:
Parents and teachers can count with the children the number of syllables in target words during a storytelling session or a lesson reading,
They can also encourage the kids to consider whether the important words contain onsets, rhyming families, and letters that they have already learned.
Phonological awareness of words:
By asking questions like, “What is the initial letter in this word? Parents may help their kids understand the relationships between letters and sounds. What sound does it make? What word’s final letter is that?
Audio-visual videos:
Children might be encouraged to sing along and listen to nursery rhyme recordings. To hone their listening and pronunciation abilities, they can also watch a tonne of informative and age-appropriate videos online.
Google Translate:
Parents can look for the English equivalent of words from their native tongue on google, play the pronunciation, and ask kids to repeat the words back to them.
What you need to know:
It is essential to identify whether a child’s reading difficulties are caused by a lack of oral vocabulary or a poor understanding of the letter-sound relationships in English, and if necessary, to seek the assistance of a specialist.
To reiterate, phonics can be practiced by children as young as a one-year-old and also by English language learners of any age group. It is useful not only for reading practice but also for language speaking and writing.
